Adams County man charged with killing estranged girlfriend

Brown County authorities today arrested an Adams County businessman accused of shooting and killing his estranged girlfriend.

John R. Crum, 83, of Peebles, is charged with aggravated murder and murder in the death of 62-year-old Marsha Thigpen of Ripley, Ohio.

John Crum

The Brown County Sheriff’s Offices responded at 10:30 a.m.Wednesday morning to a report of an unresponsive woman on Ripley-Day Hill Road, according to a press release from Sheriff Gordon Ellis. Deputies arriving at the scene discovered Thigpen’s body lying next to her pick-up truck. Authorities say she died of a gunshot wound to the head.

Crum is scheduled to be arraigned Friday morning in Brown County’s Common Pleas Court. He is being held in the Brown County jail.

Anyone with more information is being asked to contact the Brown County Sheriff’s Office at 937-378-4435.